Modern politics overshadows Israel’s historic Herod exhibit

He's best known as a great tyrant. King Herod is said to have killed his wife and sons as well as all the baby boys of Bethlehem.

A stone sculpture of the Roman emperor Augustus, who ruled at the time of Herod the Great – part of the Israel Museum exhibition [Credit: Jim Hollander/EPA]

But the first major exhibition on the Biblical ruler at the Israel Museum sets out to prove that he also had positive qualities that make him more deserving of the title "Herod the Great".

"We tried to show that he was not only the cruel person described by [the Jewish historian] Josephus and the New Testament but he was also a ruler who managed to keep this country in peace for 33 years," says curator Silvia Rosenburg.

"It was probably very difficult being a local ruler caught between the Roman Empire and the different exigencies of Judaism, but he did it very well. In his time there was prosperity and work for everyone."

A main reason why there was mass employment was because of the ambitious building projects ordered by Herod when he ruled between 37 and 4 BC.

Some of the artefacts on display at the museum come from the Second Temple complex in Jerusalem, which he expanded. It was later destroyed but Jews still pray at its Western Wall.

He also erected splendid palaces in the desert including several in what is now the occupied West Bank: at Jericho, ancient Cypros and Herodium. Fragments of frescoes and mosaics from the sites have been pieced together at the museum.

Relics removed

The highlight of the exhibit is a partial reconstruction of what is believed to be the King's burial place at Herodium. It was discovered in 2007, by the Israeli archaeologist Ehud Netzer.

Some 30 tonnes of material were brought from Herodium including masonry and the sarcophagus thought to have contained Herod's body.

"The material that's never been seen before is the material that's been excavated at Herodium just within recent years," says museum director James Snyder.